Gambling casinos and other establishments often have large numbers of individual gaming machines, such as slot machines and video gaming machines. For some time it has been desirable to automate accounting, security and other functions related to such machines for efficiency, reliability and economy. Data transfer systems for providing accounting and security information to casino operators have been described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,072,930, 4,283,709 and 4,636,951. The systems known in the art, however, have been principally directed toward reporting data from the gaming machines to the central computer, and have not provided for transmission of data from the central computer to the individual machines. Further, such systems have not provided any means by which a player or employee can communicate with the system. Another disadvantage of these systems is that their functions have been very limited, primarily for reporting accounting data to the central computer.
In the past it has not been possible for a player to interrupt his play, leave the machine briefly, and then return and resume play. It is desirable to provide a reservation feature so that a player can temporarily reserve a machine.
It is also desirable to permit cashless gaming so that the player does not need to carry large sums of cash or obtain change in different denominations for the different machines he wishes to play. A gaming system using credit cards wherein approval and credit is provided by a remote financial institution is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,022. However, that system does not permit winnings to be credited directly to a player's card or account, and contemplates the involvement of a third-party bank or other financial institution.